Capturing an Elusive Troubadour

According to the singer-songwriter Bill Callahan, performing in front of an audience is “the realest me that there is.” Taking him at his word, the director Hanly Banks makes his live shows the meat of “Apocalypse: A Bill Callahan Tour Film,” allowing her introspective subject to reveal as much, or as little, as he pleases.

No one familiar with Mr. Callahan’s close-to-the-vest persona will be shocked to learn that, in the revelation department, pickings are slim. (He used to perform under the band name Smog, which perfectly suited his pea-soup voice and sometimes impenetrable lyrics.) Rather than divulge personal tidbits, he’s more comfortable expressing himself in songs that play as a conversation with the America he loves and the people he passes. Movement moves him — one song rides the familiar rhythm of a chugging train — but you can’t dance to his music or sing it in the bathtub. Deep and cloudy, these are songs you sway to, float on and, if you’re feeling especially broody, drown in.

Captured during a 2011 tour to New York from California (Ms. Banks shared cinematography duties with Smokey Nelson), “Apocalypse” periodically glances away from stripped-down stage performances to peer at rolling tarmac and grazing cattle. Behind the microphone, however, Mr. Callahan’s thick, peaty baritone — accompanied by Matt Kinsey’s clean guitar riffs and Neal Morgan’s precise drumbeats — needs no visual embellishment. And though this dark troubadour in summery seersucker may drop the odd cryptic comment (“Symbols are everything, and that’s all we have”), there are no dredged-up traumas or midnight confessions. Just a tantalizing glimpse of a determinedly outsider talent.

Apocalypse: A Bill Callahan Tour Film

Director

Hanly Banks

Star

Bill Callahan

Running Time

1 hours

Genres

Documentary, Musical

Movie data powered by IMDb.com

A version of this article appears in print on , on Page C10 of the New York edition with the headline: Apocalypse: A Bill Callahan Tour Film. Order Reprints | Today’s Paper | Subscribe